Dr. Fransiscus Sylvius, founder of the world’s first academic chemical laboratory at Leiden University in Holland, in 1669, is credited with the invention of gin.
I said “credited with” not “established as” because nobody seems to know who came up with it first. It could be even before old Sylvius was born. Who knows? In any case, by the time he was giving lectures on the chemistry of the human body, gin was established as a medicine and it may have been one which was used in treatment by Dr. Sylvius thus aligning him with its creation.
The term “gin” derives from “jenever”, meaning “juniper” which is the chief botanical used in the making of gin. Juniper gives gin its distinctive flavor but distillers also use other herbal flavorings, including coriander.
Frankly, I think referring to gin as a medicine is not a bad idea because you don’t have to get sick before you enjoy it as a cure for whatever comes to mind. One of the most popular ways of doing that is in the form of a Martini and if you have two of them you will feel medicated enough to believe you have cured yourself even if you never got sick.
In any case, King William of the Netherlands is reported to have gone to London in 1689 and taken gin with him and it caught on in a big way and the rest is, I suppose, history.
During the liberation of Paris in 1944, Ernest Hemingway famously led a group of 50 French combat irregulars into the Ritz Hotel bar, having first “liberated” the hotel from the hastily retreating Germans, who had used it as headquarters. The barman, overcome with joy and excitement asked Hemingway to name whatever he would like and Hemingway is said to have answered “51 dry martinis.” If the legend isn’t true, it ought to be. Hemingway also used gin as an aftershave lotion. But then he would, wouldn’t he?
A classic martini is pretty basic and easy to make.
A jigger of gin (1.5-oz.)
The amount of Vermouth you prefer (not much is a good rule)
Stir with a few cubes of ice (or shake)
Strain and serve “up” garnished with an olive or a twist of lemon
By now I think most people probably know that the hot-weather favorite we know as Gin and Tonic originated during the days of the British Raj in the mid-1850’s. Soldiers serving in India were forced to ingest extract of Peruvian quinine to combat malaria. The quinine was extremely bitter tasting. To make it palatable, the troops cut it with sweetened soda water and called it “tonic.
This still failed to measure up so the inventive chaps in the officers’ corps added a healthy amount of gin and some lime and instead of forcing it down with the troops every morning, began having it with their chums during the evening cocktail hour. It quickly became the drink of an empire and has since remained a worldwide favorite.
I once asked a bartender in my hotel in the Azores for a gin and tonic and he returned to my table with the drink but without ice. I asked for ice. He stood as if dumbfounded for a few seconds then went back behind the bar and placed a single cube into an empty ice bucket. He then brought the bucket out and with a pair of silver tongs, ceremoniously dropped that lone ice cube into my drink.
Incidentally, quinine was first produced by the Incas in Peru from the bark of the quinquina tree. It was another gift to the world taken over by the Spaniards who reciprocated by almost wiping out the Incas. Later on quinine production shifted to Indonesia but with the World War 2 takeover of that nation by the Japanese in 1942, it became almost impossible to get. Scientists soon developed a means of making artificial quinine which is what most of today’s tonic water is.
England is equally as famous for its gin as any other country, including Holland. The Queen Mother, herself, is known to have enjoyed a gin-and-Dubonnet every day before lunch, followed by two martinis before dinner. Apparently her “happy hour” began promptly at 6 pm everyday. Her drink mixer, Major Colin Burgess, said that she would invariably ask him; “Colin, are we at the magic hour?” whereupon he would make the martinis
The Queen Mother kept to her drinks routine until she died in 2002, at the age of 101! Her daughter, Queen Elizabeth, once scolded her mum when she discovered empty bottles of Beefeaters Gin in her cupboards. So you might consider that drinking gin everyday for most of your life could aid in making it last a lot longer. Hers would be a case in point. Worthy idea anyway.
In order to enjoy a martini without dying, your body has to have the ability to metabolize alcohol with a digestive enzyme. This enzyme (ADH4) has been passed down through our genes for millions of years and has been found in gorillas, chimpanzees, baboons and orangutans and was well established in our early ancestors.
The presence of this enzyme shows that early primates developed a taste for fermented fruits which had fallen overripe to the ground. They didn’t get sick. Without that particular enzyme they would have had stomach pain and nausea and might have died. Instead they not only thrived they got buzzed. Millions of years later, about 7,000 years ago, humans became wine imbibers. This taste for alcohol was refined over subsequent millinnea until Dr. Sylvius taught the world about gin.
So now we have learned to thrive.
And get buzzed.
Cheers!